Brazilian truck drivers were protesting high diesel prices for a fourth day this week on Thursday. The truckers don’t plan to quit with blockades until measures to reduce fuel taxes are enshrined in the official gazette. Protests have been crippling highways across the nation. Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted to reduce taxes on diesel. The Senate has yet to …
USDA-EPA Discuss Year-Round E15
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials met to discuss ways to increase ethanol usage and to address refiner concerns about volatility in the market for biofuel credits. An Agri-Pulse report says the meeting followed months of discussions at the White House on the issue. It also follows months of concerns over the way EPA Administrator …
Farmers Union Wants Immediate Action on E15 Waiver
The Environmental Protection Agency’s delay in allowing year-round use of E15 gasoline threatens to harm markets for family farmers. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson wrote a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, urging the EPA to immediately institute a waiver for summertime sales of E15. Johnson says the year-round use of E15 would have significant benefits for farmers, the …
UF/IFAS Researchers Hope Better Technology Produces Less Costly Ethanol
University of Florida scientists wondered how cheaply fuel ethanol can be made from inedible plant material – called biomass – using currently available technology. Their goal is to make this form of ethanol less expensively than gasoline and help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Currently, fuel ethanol is made from corn, which is edible. Corn also uses a lot of fertilizer and …
Trump Exploring Exports Under RFS, Scaling Back Hardship Waivers, E15 Sales
The Trump Administration will scale back hardship waivers under the Renewable Fuel Standard, according to Reuters. A source tells Reuters that the move includes counting ethanol exports towards biofuel usage quotas set under the RFS. The move seeks to ease tension between the oil and corn industries which have been at odds for months regarding the RFS, including multiple White …
Senators Want Answers on RFS Economic Hardship Waiver to CVR
A group of senators is seeking more information regarding an economic hardship waiver under the Renewable Fuel Standard sent to CVR Energy, owned by Carl Icahn. The group of Democrats, including Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin and Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, sent letters seeking information to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Icahn, the billionaire former adviser to President Trump and Chairman …
Growth Energy Pressing Trump on Biofuels
An open letter to President Trump in Monday’s editions of the New York Times, New York Post, and Wall Street Journal urges the president to “unleash rural growth by cutting the red tape holding back homegrown energy.” The letter by Growth Energy also condemned Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s actions that the organization says are “destroying demand for biofuels …
Agri View: Solar Power and Farming
Everett Griner talks about solar power in today’s Agri View. Everett discusses why a lot of producers have turned to the sun to power their operations. Solar Power and Farming You know for many farmers electric power is one of their major expenses. Now a new way to meet that need is reaching more and more farmers every month. Solar …
Biofuels Group Files Lawsuit against EPA’s Pruitt
A renewable fuels trade group has filed a lawsuit against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. The Advanced Biofuels Association is the first to sue Pruitt over the Renewable Fuel Standard waivers the EPA is dishing out to refineries, large and small. Association President Michael McAdams says the group is concerned that Pruitt is granting the exemptions in an arbitrary …
Growth Energy Comments on EPA CVR Waiver
The Environmental Protection Agency has granted an undisclosed waiver to CVR, a refinery owned by Carl Icahn, allowing the company to bypass its biofuel obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The move, which is one of several, has angered the ethanol industry. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor points out the political ties between the Trump Administration and Icahn, as “Icahn …